Scarred for life
by Linneagb
Summary: My name is Minnie, and when someone, don t know who called the police about my dad, I ended up in foster home at Jim and Melinda s. A/N English is not my first language. Very dad/daughtter between Minnie and Jim... Ned/OC
1. Minnie

Chapter one

"You´re going to live at a married couple called, Jim and Melinda. They are very nice people." My social worker, Sid said when she drove into a driveway of a big house.

I stepped out of the car, and picked up my stuff from the back seat. I then started walking towards the big house, and knocked the door.

"Hi," a dark- haired man came to open the door. "I´m Jim, this is my wife Melinda. He laid his arm around the shoulders of a woman with long dark- brown hair.

"What´s your name?" Melinda asked.

"Minnie," I almost whispered.

"Well, hi Minnie, nice to meet you. Come in." I stepped over the threshold, Sid was right behind me.

"D´you want to see your room" Jim asked, I nodded shyly.

"Well follow me," Jim said and I followed him upstairs, and to a room on the left.

"This is your room. You can settle in for a minute, I´ll just go downstairs and talk to Sid. Fell like home." He smiled and turned around and walked out of the door, I could hear him go down the stairs.

**Jim´s pov**

I recognized Minnie seemed very shy. But I guessed that was just normal considering the home conditions she came from. I was sure it would be better after she had settled in a little bit

"I guess you know that to take care of a foster child is a really bid decision." Sid said when we sat by the kitchen table.

"We´ll do anything to change somebody´s life to the better." Melinda said…

"So…I guess that´s it. Good luck and bye." Sid stood up and walked out.

When Sid had closed the door, I and Melinda walked upstairs to talk to Minnie, when we suddenly heard a loud bang from Minnie´s room.


	2. The dream

Chapter two

**Jim´s pov**

"Minnie…" I came running upstairs with Melinda right behind me. "Minnie are you Ok?" I stopped when I came through the door, cause there was no Minnie there. But the mirror we had hung on the wall lied on the floor, I guessed it was that who had caused the bang.

"Minnie?" I said once more. And then I heard her snivel, and I saw her sitting crouched behind the bed. "You pick up the mirror, I take care of her." I walked around the bed and squatted down in front of Minnie.

"What happened?" I asked calmly.

"It was an accident…" she sobbed. "Please…please don´t hurt me…please don´t hurt me."

"No sweetheart," I said. "We would never hurt you. I promise." I embraced her, and I could feel her skinny little body shaking out of fear and crying.

**Melinda´s pov. **

I picked up the mirror, and watched the front of it. It had no cracks or anything but a single word were written on it. "Listen." I blinked, and then the word was gone again. And I hang it on the wall again.

**Minnie´s pov**

When I could feel Jim´s strong arms around me, I felt safe. And I knew that I would be able to trust him.

"What happened?" he asked calmly again, and looked me in the eyes.

"I don´t know" I whispered.

"Sure?"

"I don´t know I swear. I didn´t touch it."

"Could I and Melinda go downstairs and talk a little bit?" Jim had gotten a strange look in his face.

I nodded shyly again, and Jim let go of me.

When they had gone, I kept on unpacking, I didn´t have so much stuff to unpack, just two change of clothes, some books, that I had bought myself and managed to hid from my dad.

**In the middle of the night, Melinda´s pov**

I sat on a chair and could see a big muscular man coming towards me. He slapped me in the face, and then lifted me up with is hands around my throat. I couldn´t breathe.

"I´m going to kill you," the man hissed. "I´m going to kill you."

"JIM, JIIIIM JIM, no please." I sat straight up in my bed.

"It´s alright honey, it´s just me. It was just a dr…" then we could hear Minnie scream. Jim and I looked at each other, and then we stood up and ran to Minnie´s room.

"Minnie, are you Ok?" Jim asked and sat down on her bed.

**Minnie´s pov**

"Please don´t hurt me…please don´t hurt me," I cried.

"We won´t hurt you, promise. It was just a dream."

"He was going to hurt me."

"Who was?"

I became quiet, I didn´t say who was going to hurt me.

"Go back to sleep." Jim patted my shoulder and walked out of the room.

**Melinda´s pov**

"What was your dream about?" Jim asked me. When we came back to our room.

"I sat on a chair in a room, a big man came towards me, he choked me and said that he was going to kill me."

"I have a feeling, that man Is someone we don´t want him to be.! Jim said

"Who could it be?"

"I think it could be…. Minnie´s dad."


	3. Smashed to pieces

Chapter three

**Minnie´s pov**

I managed to sleep calmly- without any nightmares for the rest of the night, when I woke up, I sat up with my back against the wall, and my arms around my knees. I sat like that for a while until someone came and knocked on my door. It opened; I putted my hands against the wall and looked for somewhere to hide. When I could see it was just Jim, then I remembered where I was and I relaxed.

"Hungry?" he asked.

"Not really." I almost whispered.

"You haven´t eaten something since you came here. Come downstairs and try to eat something anyway."

I stood up, putted a big hoodie on, over my pyjamas and followed Jim to the kitchen. Where I just stopped in the door, and leaned against the doorframe.

"Come and sit down," Melinda said. "You want some breakfast?"

I shrugged, but in just that moment my stomach began to coop, Jim and Melinda smiled at me.

"I think you do." Jim said. "Come on, I´ll make you a sandwich." Slowly I began to walk towards the table, I pulled out a chair and sat down, and then Jim reached me a sandwich. I took as big bites as possible, and chewed and swallowed as fast as I could.

"Hey," Melinda laughed. "You don´t need to eat so fast, no one will take that sandwich from you."

When I had eaten that sandwich… and THREE other ones, Melinda said.

"You are going to follow me to work today, is that ok?"

I nodded, took my plate and was about to put it in the dishes. But I stumbled, fumbled and dropped the plate which cracked into several pieces. I fell, and landed next to all the plate-pieces.

"You´re Ok," Jim bent down and looked me in the face. I sat up and started to move backward.

"Please don´t hurt me." I whispered.

"No, no it´s Ok, it was just a plate." Jim helped me to stand up, and I squatted down to pick up the pieces. My hands were shaking.

"You´re Ok Minnie?"

"I…I´m fine." I stuttered…

"And…off we go," Melinda turned the car-key around and started to drive out of the driveway.

"Hi Delia," Melinda said to her colleague, when we came to the shop. "This is Minnie. Minnie meet Delia."

"Hi Minnie, nice to meet you." Delia said. Her eyes were very kind- looking. But still, I couldn´t really trust her. I had been to damaged to trust almost everyone.

We can go to the room behind the shop and check out the inventory. I believe you can help out a little bit, by packing up things. I followed Melinda to the room, and she showed me some boxes I was supposed to unpack and sort. I stood there and sorted for a few hours, It was kind of fun until…


	4. Scarred

Chapter four

**Delia´s point of view**

I heard a loud bang from the inventory room. As Melinda stood and talked to a customer. I let go of the things I held in my hands and rushed back to the inventory room.

"Minnie?" I asked when I came into the room. "Minnie are you Ok?" then I saw Minnie, sitting crouched behind some boxes. Some pieces of a figure porcelain lay in front of her. I didn´t care about the figure, and I squatted down in front of her.

"Please don´t hurt me…. It was an accident…I didn´t mean to…Please don´t hurt me." She sobbed.

"No honey, I said calmly. "I won´t hurt you, promise. It was just a figure. Are you Ok?"

Minnie had been holding one hand in the other, and now slowly she began to let go of it. She reached it towards me and then I could see a deep cut, across her palm.

"I tried to pick the pieces up." She almost whispered.

"Come on," I said and helped her to stand up. "We´ll go into the store, it´s better light there."

We walked out to the store, then I could take a real look at her hand.

"We should call Jim." I said. "It looks like it needs stitches."

Minnie nodded slowly and Melinda came to look at it. Then she looked at her watch.

"Jim should have a lunch break now, I´ll go call him."

"His on his way." Melinda said when she came back to us.

When Jim arrived, he took a lock at the cut in Minnie´s hand, and said.

"Yep, that definitely needs stitches. Go get your jacket, I´ll take you to the hospital."

**Minnie´s pov**

"I don´t need to go to hospital, I´ll be fine."

"That need stitches, and if not it´s going to be an ugly scar."

"Let it become a scar then."

"Are you afraid of the hospital?"

"No."

The truth was, I had loads of scars, scars after whips on my back, unhealed ribs, and I had not been to the hospital one single time. In three years. So why go to the hospital for a cut, that would heal by itself in a few weeks.

"Then you are going to the hospital. That need stitches."

I sighed, this time I had to give in. I went back to the inventory room, picked up my hoodie and followed Jim.


	5. Ned

Chapter five

I and Jim reached the hospital, we walked in. And Jim talked to some people, and then I followed him into a room, he opened a locker and pulled out some things.

"No..no." I screamed, when I saw what it was, I stood up, and pressed myself against the wall, ready to run.  
"Hey," Jim said. "I´m not going to hurt you, what are you afraid of?" I didn´t say anything. But pointed at the thing he was holding in his hand, he held it up.

"Scissor?" he said. "Did someone hurt you with a scissor?" I nodded. "Well, what if we do it like this, you get to hold the scissor, then I won´t be able to hurt you. Even if I wanted to, which I don´t." I nodded again, and slowly I walked towards him, and took the scissor from his hand. Then I sat down on the bed again, I held out my hand, and Jim started sewing, while I cutted the thread.

"And then we´re done," he said. "I´ll drive you back to the store, and then I´ll have to get back to work." I nodded.

When I was back in the store, Melinda and Delia decided that we would take a lunch break. And I followed them to the café across the street. I walked with my hands in my jeans pockets, after them.

"Well, Minnie, what do you wanna eat?" Melinda asked, when we sat there. I shrugged.

"You decide," I almost whispered. She nodded and ordered two Tuna sandwiches. A coffee for herself and a coke for me. Then we went back to the store, we sat down behind the desk, and ate our food.

"What do you think?" Melinda asked. "Was the food ok?" I nodded and stood up to throw the paper from the sandwich in the bin. Then I walked back again, and sat down. I looked up, when the door opened.

"Mum," a boy came into the store. "Can I have some mon…ey?" He stopped, when he saw me, and he was kind of cute.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi." I said.

"I´m Ned."

"Minnie"


	6. Milkshake and basketball

"ehrm, hrm," Ned began. "I´m going out to take a milkshake, do you wanna come… Minnie?"

"I…I, I don´t think I." I stuttered, before Melinda interrupted.

"Oh come on Minnie, you can go with him. You´ll have some fun." She grabbed her handbag and opened it; she pulled out a wallet and reached me a tenner. "Here, take this money and go get each milkshake or something." Slowly, I reached my hand forward and took it from her. I gave it to Ned, and followed him out the door. When we came out in the sun, Ned started talking.

"I know a place where they make really tasty milkshakes, do you wanna go there?" I shrugged.

"What… what exactly is a milkshake?"

"You´ve never tasted a milkshake?"

"No…"

"Then you gotta try it." Ned walked in front of me, across the street and to a café. He ordered two chocolate milkshakes, paid for them and gave one of them to me. We walked out, and sat down at the stone, stairs in front of the big statue outside.

"So…"Ned began. "How come you´re here in Grandview?"

"I´ve always lived in Grandview, just in another part of it." I answered. Trying to figure out if I should tell him the truth or not.

"Yeah, I get it. But…"

"I know, yeah, I´m a foster child at Jim and Melinda´s." Ned blushed.

"I´m sorry, for being so sneaky." He mumbled.

"It´s ok," I said, and tasted the milkshake. "Mm, it´s delicious." Then we sat there, drinking our milkshakes, we were quiet for a while, until someone we both recognized came down the road.

"Hi kids." Jim said and came to sit next to me. "What are you doing?"

"Drinking milkshakes," Ned answered. "What´s up?"

"I´ve finished working," he said. "I was on my way to get Minnie and then go home, but now when you´re here, maybe you don´t wanna go home." I shrugged. "I have a basketball in the car, so maybe we could go to the basketball field and play some."

"That´d be cool," Ned said. "What about you?" He looked at me.  
"Sure, that could be fun."

"Well, we better go and tell Mel and Delia were we´re going." We stood up all three of us and walked towards the store again.

"Yeah, by the way Minnie," Jim pulled out something that looked like a glove, without any fingers and just half thumb. "Use this, it´ll keep the stitches onto your palm from being ripped up."

"Okay," I pulled the glove over my fingers.

When we arrived at the basketball field, it was empty, good for us.

"So…" Jim began. "Me against you two then?" I and Ned nodded, and well, we started playing. We stayed there for a while, shooting towards the basket, dribbling and running around the field. At last, me and Ned won the game, with 32 points against Jim´s twenty.

"You liked that Minnie?" Ned asked when we were on our way to Jim´s car.

"Yeah, that was fun." I dribbled the ball while I was walking.

**Flashback**

I was running around, dribbling with the ball. At the basket field behind the school. The school day had ended over two hours ago, but I didn´t wanna go home. I knew I was going to get beat up again, if dad was home.

"Minnie?" My teacher came out on the field. "What are you doing here so late?"

"Just, training." I said.

"I have been watching you for a while, you´ve got something. Why don´t you join the basketball team?"

"Wanna play?" I held the ball towards him.

"Minnie?"

"I just don´t like competing," I lied.

"Is there something you´re not telling me?"

"No," I lied. "Wanna play?" He smiled and catched the ball, for a while we ran around the field for, dribbling with the ball and shooting it towards the basket.

"That´s enough," Mr. Anderson gasped after a while. "Just remember, I´m an old man."  
"Yeah," I looked at the clock at the school building wall, "I gotta go home now." I putted the ball under my arm, and hung my bag over my shoulder. Then I started running towards my street.


	7. Who you are

I was still thinking about that day when I played basketball with my teacher, when we kept on walking towards the car. That day was about one year ago, the day my teacher started getting suspicious and….

"OUCH." I walked into something, and then fell. With my hands on my nose.

"Minnie what are you doing?" Jim and Ned turned around towards me.

"I walked into a pole, I didn´t see it. Because I was thinking about something else." I stood up again.

"Let me see." Jim walked over to me. But it didn´t seem like I was bleeding, strange, cause I had walked into that pole really hard.

"What were you thinking about?" Ned asked when we started walking again.

"Nothing." I mumbled. "Just… something."

"Nothing just something huh?" Jim smiled. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close. And I just happened to knock his ribs, with my nose. Not hard, but enough to make my, already hurting nose to bleed.

"Ouch," I said again. And I could feel the warm fluid pouring down my face. "Now I´m bleeding"

"Let me see… Yep, you´re bleeding." He pulled out a tissue from his pocket and held it to my nose. "Press this against your nose for five minutes, and it´ll stop bleeding. Now," we started walking again. "Where were we? Right, you thought about nothing just something."

"Yeah, yeah. I´ll dell you aboud thad as sood as I cad dalk dorbally agaid." I said and climbed into the car, between Jim and Ned.

"Yeah, I was going to tell you about nothing just something." I said and smiled when my nose, finally stopped bleeding. "I was thinking about…." I took a deep breath. "I was thinking about when… when." I thought about how I should express myself. "when me and my teacher ran around the basket field at school. Playing basketball, it was that day, my teacher… he."

"Hey," Ned began. "Now I remember where I´ve seen you before. I´ve seen you at school. You´re in Mr. Morris´s class. You´re…"

"Don´t call me that."

"… Minnie McNitter, you always wear long- sleeved shirts. And you´re often limping, and you´re ill very often… you´re in my English class."

"I´d already figured that out." I mumbled. "And you´re Ned Banks, you´re always hanging out with the older guys… you´re, you´re one of them."

"Minnie, Minnie please don´t. I´m really sorry, I´m so, so sorry. If I could make it up to you, I would." I ignored him, and kept on doing that when he stepped out of the car and walked towards his own house.

"You can make it up to me." I almost whispered. "But you´ve gotta find out how for yourself."

"What was that all about?" Jim asked. "You two seemed like great friends and then…"

"Then I found out who he is."


	8. Mental McNitter

When we came home, Jim started preparing for dinner. I jumped up on the kitchen bench, and sat there. After a while, we both could hear a car on the driveway. Then the door opened, and we could hear Melinda shout.

"Honey, I´m home."

"In here" Jim shouted back.

"Hi Minnie," she came into the kitchen. "Did you have a good time playing basketball?" I shrugged.

"We had a great time playing ball." Jim said. "But on the way home, Ned and she started talking about school. And suddenly, Minnie refused to talk to him anymore."

"Yeah, talking about school gets me in a bad mood too."

"It wasn´t just that." I jumped down from the bench when Jim reached me a knife and some peppers. "Are you sure it´s a good idea giving me those?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just think, I´ve dropped a plate, fell to the floor, dropped a figure porcelain, cut my hand on the pieces, walked into a pole, and just happened to knock your ribs right after, all this. In one day." Melinda smiled at me.

"I´m sure you´ll do fine, but be careful."

"Well," Jim began. "I know for a fact that you like Ned, he´s making you better."

"What do you mean, making me better?"

"You don´t seem half as shy as before. And by the way, why did you tell him not to call you that, when he was just going to say your name?"

"Mental McNitter." I said, gave him the peppers and jumped up on the kitchen bench again. "That´s what they´re calling me."

"Does Ned call you that?" Melinda had gotten the worried- adult look on her face.

"Yep, he hangs out with the older guys. Oh, and by the way." I jumped down to the floor and sat down to the floor, and sat down by the table, when Jim putted the food on the table. "I´m going to school tomorrow, I´m gonna show that Ned Banks, that I am so much better than him." Jim and Melinda looked at each other. But I didn´t care about them, when I started eating.

**At school.**

I walked over the school- yard. And sat down on a bench, reading a book from the library. Until I could hear a voice from above my head.

"So, Mental McNitter." I looked up, and saw that Zach Leyston and his gang stood around me in a half circle. Ned to the left, but he didn´t seem as tough as the others.

"Mhm." I crouched a bit. But then I thought. "No Minnie, don´t let them see that you´re scared." I stood up, and held my head high.

"Seem a little bit tougher today, don´t ya McNitter? Is that because you finally got away from your rubbish dad, and into foster care?" My mind went completely blacked out, I was so angry. I turned around towards Ned.

"YOU TOLD ´EM?" I shouted. "I TRUSTED YOU." Before I knew what I was doing I had jumped on him. He fell, but before I could hurt him, I was pulled away from him.

"Stop, stop it." It was Mr. Anderson´s voice, he had grabbed me around my stomach, and now pulled me away from Ned. But before he could do anything else, I pulled in his arms, to make him let go of me. And then I ran away from the school yard.

**Jim´s pov**

I was eating lunch with Delia and Melinda, when my phone rang. I pulled it up, and I didn ´t recognize the number, so I answered.

"Hello….wait, what?.. Yeah, I´ll see if I can find her. Do you know where she used to live before she came to us… alright, thank you." I hung up, and looked at Delia and Melinda.

"Minnie has run away from school." I said. "Delia, go back to the store if she comes there, Melinda, go home and check if she´s there, or on the way home. I´ll call work, and tell them I won´t come back, then I´m going to drive around town and see if I can find her. If none of us can find her. We´ll go to where she used to live with her dad."

We didn´t care about eating up, and we stood up, and started running in different directions. I could feel my heart pumping all up in my ears. Why had Minnie run away? What if something happened to her?


	9. Minnie s house

**Minnie´s pov**

I had reached the house, where I used to live with my dad. I ran up to the door, and felt it. Locked. So I walked down in the small garden, and grabbed a rock, and threw it at one of the windows. It cracked into hundreds of pieces, and fell down in the garden, and into the house. I walked back a few steps, ran to the wall, and jumped up on the window frame, and then into the house. Then I walked into the house.

**Jim´s pov**

I had driven around the town, without any results. Minnie wasn´t there.

"Come on Minnie, where are you?" I said to myself. When my phone rang and I picked it up.

"Jim Clancy."

"She´s not at home," it was Melinda´s voice. "I´ve called Delia, and she hasn´t come to the store either. Where are we going now?"

"Just, just wait at home. I´ll come pick you up, and we´ll go together to where she used to live before she came to us."

"Okay."

"Bye, see ya´" I turned the car around, and started driving in the other direction. To pick up Melinda.

"Do you know where she used to live before?" Melinda asked when she stepped into the car.

"Yeah, I asked when her teacher called. It´s on Loasic road, number five."

"Isn´t that where…"

"Yeah, it is." I drove up onto a driveway in front of a small house. With a really small garden in front of it.

"Her it is." I opened the car door and walked up the stairs to the house. And felt the door handle.

"It´s locked."

"Does that mean she´s not here?"

"No." I stepped down from the stairs. And looked around.  
"Look." I ran to a smashed window. And looked in. "She got in through this, I can see the rock she used to smash it." I grabbed the upper part of the window frame, and jumped up on the window frame, and then to the floor. Then I helped Melinda to climb into the house. It was dark, so I tried to turn the lights of.

"No electricity. I´ve got a flashlight in the car. I´ll go get it." I jumped out through the window. When I walked back from the car, with the flashlight in my hand. I took the opportunity to look around the front yard. There were garbage, like old McDonalds boxes and bags laying all around. But the McDonalds garbage didn´t bother me as much as the beer cans that layed everywhere. I jumped into the house again, and turned the flashlight on. The sight of the room, in light. Made me quiet.

"How can anyone live like this?" Melinda asked, and that was what I thought too. If the front yard was bad, then this was indescribable awful. Cans of beer stood everywhere, the old sofa, which stood by the wall, was dirty and full of fleas, a dirty knife laid on the table, covered in something that looked like blood. I had seen a lot, in my days as a paramedic, but this was the worst of all homes that I had seen. Above all, there was a smell of vomit and alcohol in the air. I pulled up my jacket over my mouth and nose.

"I guess…" I began. "I guess, that if this is the only thing you´ve ever known, it´s what makes you feel safe… or something. Come on, we gotta search through the house, and see if Minnie´s here.

We walked out to the hallway and up the stairs, when we came up the stairs. We began to search through a room to the left. Nothing there, a room straight forward from the stairs. Nothing, we looked into the bathroom, but then, the smell got so bad. We immediately closed the door. And after all, there was just one room left. I slowly opened the door to it, when we could hear Minnie´s voice.

"Go!"

"Minnie." I rushed into the room. And discovered Minnie under the bed. I laid down on the floor, to be able to look her in the eyes.

"GO" she shouted. "You´re not supposed to be here!"

"Neither are you." I told her. "Now, get out from there. You´ll get ill." I reached my hand out so she could take it. Slowly, she reached out her hand, and took mine. I helped her to get out from under the bed, and to sit down on the bed.

"You´re ok?" I asked her.

"He told them." She almost whispered. "Ned told Zach Leyston and the others, that I live in a foster home." I looked at Melinda. Who said.

"Come on, we go to the store and talk to Delia about this."

**And don´t forget to review **


	10. Just like my dad

"And this has been going on for how long?" Delia asked, when I, Jim and Melinda had told her about what Ned and the others did to me. I shrugged.

"I´m not sure, but I guess it started about when I switched schools, to the one I go to now."

"Why did you..." Jim began.

"Don´t ask," I looked up at him, "please, I don´t wanna think about it."

"Do you remember how it started?" she asked.

"Not really, I guess, they didn´t really like me from the start. For a couple of reasons, I was, well, depressed at that point of time, I never really spoke to anyone, and then, I guess I was just an easy offer. ANd it didn´t take them long to figure out things like that I had about two changes of clothes, and stuff like that."

"And Ned has been a part of this…"

"Just about a month, that´s why I didn´t recognize him right away yesterday. "

"Hold on a minute Minnie?" Melinda began. "When you say that you had about two changes of clothes, does that mean…"

"That I still only have only two changes of clothes… yes"

"Do you think we should..." Melinda looked at Delia.

"Do you mean that we should close the store tomorrow to go…"

"Yes…"

"Absolutely."

"Ehrm, what exactly are you talking about now?" I asked, a little bit confused.

"We," Melinda began. "are going to close the store tomorrow, and you´re coming with us on a girl- trip at the mall, to get you some clothes."

"Really?" I asked

"Yes." Melinda nodded. Jim lifted me down from the desk, when I could hear the door open and close and Ned came in.

" H- hi Minnie." He stuttered, but I didn´t answer him, I just looked away.

"Look Minnie" he continued. "I´m really sorry for what happened today, and I´m gonna make it up to you. I promise."

"Give me one reason to believe you." I mumbled.

"Well, I promise."

"Well, so did my dad when he said he wouldn´t hurt me anymore, and he did, he did it worse than ever. Give me one reason to believe that your promise isn´t gonna make anything worse."

"Look, I can´t force you to believe that, but I guess like, I´m not like your dad. I keep my promises, and…"

"And if you don´t keep it, you´re just like my dad." I almost whispered.

"I know," Ned nodded slightly. "But I´m not like him, I won´t hurt you, promise."

"Melinda…" I looked up at Melinda. "Would you mind if we take this girls´ trip on Thursday instead? I would really love to see what Ned´s plan is."

**The day after, at school**

"So you´re here again?" Zach and his gang stood around me, with Ned to my right. "Mental McNitter."

I looked at Ned, no reaction.  
"So you´re breaking your promise, and are being just like my dad." I thought, and looked back at Zach. When I suddenly hear Ned speak.


	11. Lizzie

"Oi, just shut up." Ned came to stand next to me. "You may think she's weird, but she´s my friend, so just lay off her. Understand?"

"Ned… man," Zach began. "Come on, you can´t be friends with mental McNitter."

"And how are you gonna stop me. And if you still wanna call her Mental McNitter, then warn the others." Ned took my hand. "Because now we´re two."

"Oh come on guys," Zach started turning around. "You coming Ned?"

" No."

"Whatever." Zach and his gang started walking over the school yard, and sat down on the other side, on the place where they used to sit and smoke. I looked at Ned and smiled, he held up his hand and we high- fived.

"So." We sat down on the bench attached to the school- building and Ned started talking. "What´s your next lesson?" I pulled up my schedule from my pocket, and unfolded it.

"English, with Mr. Anderson." I put it back in my pocket.

"So have I, it´s my last lesson for today."

"Mine too."

"Do you think we should… I mean after the lesson."

"Do you men, like we did?"

"Yes."

"Definitely"

**Two hours later**

"MUM?" I and Ned walked into the store, and he shouted for Delia.

"Yes sweetie." Delia and Melinda, came from the inventory room out in the shop.

"We wanna have some money, so we can go buy milkshakes." He leaned against the desk. "And if we don´t we´re gonna die."

"Die huh?" Delia looked amused.

"Yes," I walked to lean against the desk next to Ned. "a very, very painful death."

" So you guys are friends again then?" Melinda asked.

"Oh, have we been fighting?" Ned turned his head to look at me.

"I don´t know, have we?" I looked back.

"Not as I can remember."

"Oh, you guys…" Delia shook her head before reaching or her handbag and pulling out two tenners from her wallet.

"Go buy yourselves milkshakes, and buy coffee for me and Melinda. You know what kind of coffee we want Ned."

"Yes," I and Ned turned around, and walked out of the store. Then we walked across the street. We came back to the store, with one strawberry milkshake for me, one chocolate- milkshake for Ned, and coffee for Delia and Melinda. I and Ned jumped up on the desk, and Delia and Melinda sat down on the divan.

"So, Minnie, are you thirteen like Ned or…" Delia began

"No, I´ll turn twelve in a while, but we´re in the same grade, because I started school one year earlier than most other people."

"Why?" Ned turned his head to look at me.

"I don´t know," I lied. "Or… I do know, but… I´d rather not talk about that."

"I understand."

"What date is it today?" I asked.

"It´s September the 21:st" Melinda answered me, I started counting on my fingers, and said.

"That means…" I counted. "That my birthday is, it´s Wednesday, today right."

"Yeah,"

"It means, that my birthday is… next Saturday." I dropped my hands back down, and reached for the milkshake, I had placed on the desk next to me, so I could wait another few seconds before saying anything else.

"What do you wish to have for your birthday then?" Melinda asked.

"Nothing, " I mumbled. "I don´t really like my own birthday." I thought back, on my terrible birthday two years ago.

**Flashback**

"Dad, I´m going now." I took my rucksack and bent down to tie my shoelaces.

"Where are you going?" Dad came out to the hallway.

"I told you, Lizzie is arranging this, birthday party for me." I stood up, after tying the laces. "Look, I´m only going away for a couple of hours. And it´ll only be for me, Lizzie and her parents. I´ve done the dishes, and the laundry, and I´ll prepare for dinner when I get home." He nodded slightly. I knew I was gonna have some trouble when I got home. But right now I didn´t care, I jogged towards my best friend´s house. I knocked the door, Lizzie´s dad came to open.

"Hi" I said. "Is Lizzie in?" Though I knew she would be. But I stopped myself from going anywhere when I saw his eyes fill with tears.

"Is everything ok Mr. Farnon" I asked, a bit insecure.

"Are you… are you Minnie?" he asked, without answering my question, and I nodded. He showed me to go into the house, I followed and sat down in the sofa next to Mrs. Farnon.

"What´s… going on?" I asked.

" Minnie, sweetheart." Mrs. Farnon took my hand. "Lizzie… she was hit by a car on the way home today."

"Is she alright?" I looked first at Mrs. Farnon, and then to her husband. No one answered me, but by the looks on their faces, I understood that she wasn´t… that she was never going to be ok again.

"NO," I said. "No, no, no, no,"

"Minnie," Mrs. Farnon began. "Her grandparents are coming here any minute. So I think you´ll have to leave now. But I think Lizzie wanted you to have that." She pointed at a big box, wrapped in colorful birthday wrapping. That laid on the table. I reached for it, not knowing what else to do. I pulled of the lock.

"Skates." I almost whispered, though it didn´t really mean something now. "Thank you mr. and Mrs. Farnon, thank you."

"Valerie and Joseph … please."

"Valerie and Joseph."

"There´s no point with thanking us." Joseph bent forward and patted my shoulder. "It was Lizzie´s idea. She saved all her pocket money for six months to be able to buy them for you. She really wanted to give you those, so you better use them now." He smiled a bit. I nodded.

"I will… I will." I stood up, gave them each hug, and then walked outside. Before I walked into the house where I lived, I hid the skates in the garage, where my dad wouldn´t find them.

**End of flashback**

That night, when my dad had got drunk, and started to abuse me for not making him any dinner. I begged him to kill me. Anything to ease the pain. Just, anything.

"Minnie?... Minnie? Hello, earth to Minnie?" Ned´s voice brought me back to real life, and I looked up.

"Everything alright?" I heard a male voice. I turned my head, and saw that Jim had arrived. "You seemed so far away."

"Wh… what?" I asked, a bit confused.

"I asked if you´re alright." Jim walked across the store, placed his hands on my shoulders, and looked me in the eyes. "Minnie? Are you crying?" I hadn´t realized until now, that tears were streaming down my face.

" No." I lied, pushed away his hands and jumped down from the desk. I walked across the store, and looked out the window. Trying to stop thinking about the worst day in my life.

"Jim?" I turned around. After whipping away the tears and a few deep breaths.

"Yeah."

"I just remembered, I forgot something at the house I used to live before. Is it possible that we could…"

"Of course."

I and Jim walked out of the store, after saying goodbye to Delia and Ned, and see you later to Melinda. I climbed into Jim´s pickup, and he started driving.

"What are you thinking of?" Jim asked, after driving a few minutes in silence. "You seem so quiet."

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Nothing just something again huh?"

"No… just nothing. You wait here." I jumped out of the car when he drove onto the driveway in front of my house. I walked slowly, up to the garage- door, and felt the lock. The door opened, and I walked in. It was dark, because there was no electricity. I walked across the floor. I knelt down in front of a locked drawer. I felt with my hand under the drawer, I found what I was looking for, a key. And I unlocked the drawer, and pulled it out. There laid a carton in there, a carton wrapped in birthday wrapping.

**So, the idea about Lizzie, actually popped up in my head while writing this chapter. And I think that, this is kind of the first time, you get to know anything about Minnie´s past. What do you think? **


	12. The skates

**So, to make the long waiting up to everyone I´m updating all of my stories at the same time. **

**Jim´s point of view. **

"Honey, I´m home." Melinda came through the door.

"In here." I called from the sofa in the living room.

"Ned and Delia are coming over for dinner at six." She came into the living room. "Where´s, Minnie?"

"Upstairs, she wanted to be left alone for a while." I sighed, "You, what happened, what were you guys talking about before I came into the store today?"

"Birthdays," Melinda came to sit down next to me. "She told me her birthday is next Saturday. I asked her what she wants. And she mumbled something about nothing, and that she doesn´t like her own birthday. And then she just, disappeared."

"I think I know someone else who doesn´t like her own birthday either." She smiled, giggled, and pushed my chest a bit. "We went to pick up something at her house; she walked into the garage, and came back with a big carton, wrapped in birthday wrapping. She didn´t open it, and she refused to tell me what was in it."

"Why so curious?" Melinda turned around to look at me.

"You know, I just can´t let go of the feeling that there is something special with that carton. And with her, and what she thought about when I came into the store this afternoon."

"Maybe we should just go upstairs, and ask her, if there´s something we should know about her. "

"I don´t think she´ll tell us more than she´s already told us, but it´s worth a try." We both stood up, and went upstairs.

**Minnie´s point of view**

I sat on the floor. With my back against the bed, and my knees bent. I held one of the skates in front of me.

"Minnie," Jim knocked the door. "Can we come in?"

"It´s your house," I said, the door opened and he and Melinda came in. "Hey Mel…. Jim" I lowered my knees ´til my legs laid flat on the floor and I had my hands, with the skate on my lap.

"So that´s what was in the box." Jim looked from the skate I held onto my lap, to the box, who laid, open next to me. "You´re a figure skater?"

"Not any more, we could have left them at my house," I sighed. "They´re too small." I lowered my head and sighed again.

"Oh, that´s great, then we know what you want for your birthday." Melinda smiled.

"Thanks, but… it´s not that simple." I put my right hand down into the skate, and reached for something. I found a thin chain, and pulled my hand up again. Holding a thin metal chain, with one half of a "best friends- locket" onto it. I twisted the chain around my fingers, and put the locket in my palm, and clenched my hand around it. I looked up when I heard Melinda´s cellphone ring. She pulled it out of her pocket, and walked out of the room. She came back with a smile on her face a few minutes later.

"So, looks like we´re gonna have three guests tonight." She said. "Ned, Delia and Rick."

"Who´s Rick?" I asked.

"Rick Payne´s a good friend of ours."

"ok," I nodded slightly. When the doorbell rang, and Jim went out of the room. to open the door, I heard him talking with someone downstairs, and then we heard three pair of feet walking up the stairs. Jim came into the room again.

"Minnie… there´s someone here to see you…" he turned his head, too look at the man and woman who entered the room. I stood up.

"V-v-Valerie and Joseph," I stuttered. "What are you doing here? I though you moved to Florida, like… right after…" I couldn´t say the last words of the sentence but I knew they understood.

**So, Lizzie´s parents have come to see Minnie, what do they want? I know… haha, I know more than you do, I know more than you do. HAHA, I´m tired. And when I´m tired I´ve got a really weird sense of humor. **

**Well, soon, weird stuff is gonna start happening. Weird as in ghost. And this ghost, she actually just feels like nobody listens to her. Remember that mirror in the second chapter. "listen." Well, this ghost is not afraid to hurt someone (someone as in Minnie) to make somebody listen to her. But she´ll have to do something else as well, and I need ideas for "visions" or something like that. Oh, and by the way. The ghost was choked, if it means something. **

**So, the second chap ready for my "update-all-my-stories-at-once-project." Just five more to go. **


	13. Useless

**Thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate it. **

"Hi to you too." Joseph smiled a bit. "We searched through a few of old boxes a few weeks ago, and we figured out that these probably belongs to you." He reached me an envelope and a notebook.

"We also wondered if you´d like to have these skates." Valerie reached me a box. I turned it to look at the size of the skates. Then I opened the box.

"These are Lizzie´s" I mumbled.

"But if you want them they´re yours." Joseph smiled again.

"I do but…"

"Minnie?" Joseph, that was a tall-grown man bent forward to reach my height. "The day Lizzie, the day she died. It was your birthday right?"

"It was."

"And the year before…"

"…Yippie moved to Europe, and she went away… on my birthday." I mumbled. And held the box a little tighter to my chest, and looked to the side.

"Which means that, next Saturday is the anniversary of Lizzie´s death. And your birthday."

"True."

"So just… just see these as an early birthday gift from Lizzie will you? "

"Ok."

"We gotta go now, we gotta catch the flight home, but it was nice to see you again. And now use those well." Joseph clapped the box I still held tightly to my chest. I nodded.

"Bye then," Joseph and Valerie walked out the door, and I could hear them walk downstairs and outside. Jim and Melinda hadn´t moved while I talked to Valerie and Joseph. They stood right inside the door to my room.

"So, now… we don´t know what to give you for your birthday."

"I told you, I don´t want anything." I backed a few steps and sat down with my back against the bed again. I opened the box that Joseph and Valerie had given me. I pulled out of one of the skates. They looked like figure skates look the most. Though they were bright pink, with a grey pattern. I pulled the laces and pulled it onto my foot when I could.

"They´re perfect." I whispered.

"What did you say?" Jim asked. I pulled of the skate from my foot and looked up at him. I pulled on my own trainer again. Only to discover that the laces were untied- again. I took the laces and tried to remember how to tie a bow.

"Damn" I whispered.

"Minnie" Melinda began. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah… yeah fine." I smiled, and then looked to the floor again, trying hard to remember.

"Sure?" Jim squatted.

"I can´t tie my shoelaces." I mumbled.

"Oh that´s fine." Jim took my hands in his, and forced my fingers to move the laces into a bow.

"I just don´t understand." I sighed. "My friend, Lizzie, she… she taught me o tie a bow, and two weeks later I had forgotten it again." I put my hands on my knees.

"Come on." Jim took my shoulder and helped me to stand up. You get to help with the dinner, and then. I´ll teach you to tie your shoelaces.

"I´m coming in a minute." I said. "Could you just leave me alone for now."

"Course we can." Jim turned around and walked out of the room, after Melinda. When he had closed the door behind him, I took up the notebook and the envelope. I could feel that there were pictures, but I didn´t wanna look at them. I opened the drawer under the desk, and put the things there. Then I walked out of the room, and closed the door behind me.

The next morning I woke up with a burning pain in my back. Over my shoulder blades. I knew exactly what it was. So I walked to the bathroom, and turned my back towards the mirror, and pulled up the back of my shirt.

"Oh… damn." I said to myself. There were one word, inscribed over my back, over the shoulderblades with a knife. Seven letters, and the skin around it were red, blue and purple, it was clear, even to me. That it had been infected. I sighed again and read the letters.

"Useless." I said, and sighed.

"Did you say something?" I could hear Melinda from the other side of the door.

"No nothing." I shouted back.

"Maybe I should let Jim take a look at this?" I wondered for a split second. But then I shook my head a little, no I wouldn´t let Jim or Melinda know anything about this. I pulled of the big T-shirt I used to sleep in, and pulled on another T-shirt. The second of the two T-shirts I had. I pulled on my sweat pants and the other clothing, I looked at them. The pants had holes on the knees, the T-shirt a big hole on the side, and my toes could be seen through holes in the socks. I was happy that today was the day, I was going to get some new clothes.

"Minnie, have you forgot to throw out your arms," Melinda asked happily from outside the bathroom.

"What does that mean?" I asked and opened the door.

"You ask that when someone is taking long time in the bathroom, because if someone forget to throw out their arms, they could have been flushed down the toilet."  
"That´s so gross." I said, picked up my pajamas, and walked to my room.

**So, "have you forgotten to throw out your arms?" Is a question we use in my family. It´s funny, I think. **

**In this chapter, a girl called Yippie turns up for the first time, it´s s nick name. And it´s actually funny that I called her that, because, you know who else is called Yippie?.. Our dog. **


	14. Wounds

"So, far, we´ve bought," in the middle of the day the next day. "three pair of jeans, two hoodies, four T- shirts, underwear, socks, one pair of shoes…. Do you two realize…." I looked at Delia and Melinda. "That today, we´ve shopped more clothes for me, than I can remember having…. Through all my life."

"You´re kidding now right?" Delia looked at me.

"No." I answered. "When I lived with… my dad. He usually got clothes from his friends, that had got sons, he got clothes from them, every second year, and threw away most of it, I got a couple of pairs of sweat pants, T- shirts and a hoodie if I was lucky, I got shoes once, like, three years ago, and they´re still way too big for me… sorry. I´m just talking…"

"No, no it´s okay." Melinda said. "Was it that you didn´t have any money or…"

"No…. not really." I said.

"What was it…"

"Can we talk about something else?... please."

"Yes, of course." Melinda clapped my back, as if she saw that I was a bit insecure, but, she clapped right on the wound I had there, so I snitched and groaned a bit from the pain it caused.

"Are you ok honey?" Delia asked.

"Yes," I said and nodded. "Yeah, I´m fine."

"Did I hit you too hard or?..." Melinda asked.

"No, no I just… I have a wound…. Right there… It´s pretty fresh…"

"Can I take a look at it?" Melinda asked.

"Hmm," I said. "It would probably be a very good idea here…:" I looked around the café we sat in. "We can maybe… wait until Jim´s home… I mean, he knows more about such stuff don´t he?"

"True," Delia said, I think you´re right. "…. But you´re not trying to hide something from us are you?"

"No," I lied. "What would that be? It´s just a wound, it´s probably not so bad." Honestly, I hoped that Melinda would forget about it, until that matter of time when Jim came home in the evening, because I didn´t really want them to see the wound on my back.

"Are we done then?" Melinda asked, I nodded.

"So, we´ll just head home then." She continued, and I nodded again. "Do you wanna come Delia?"

"Oh, I gotta make sure that Ned study for a test he´s got tomorrow."

"Okay," Melinda asked. "See you tomorrow,"

"See you Delia."

"See you guys."

Me and Melinda, were on our way to the car, I tried to figure out how I would explain, the wound for Jim and her. I didn´t watch if there came a car when I stepped out in the road.

The next thing I knew, I heard the sound of screeching brakes, and I looked up, as in slow motion a car got closer to me, I wanted to step out of the road again, but I was so afraid my legs wouldn´t move, I closed my eyes, and waited for the car to hit me.

But it never did, suddenly, there was someone grabbing my shirt, and pulling me away from the road, though, it happened a bit too fast, and both me and the person stumbled on the curb and fell. Not until, after I had scratched up, both one of my knees and both of my palms, I looked up and could then see who had pulled me away from the road.

"Mr. Anderson?... what are you doing here?"

"Saving you… no, I was on my way to Lento´s on the square. What were you thinking Minnie? Stepping out in the road without looking just like that… you could have been killed… "

"I... sorry, I was thinking about anything else," Melinda helped me to stand up, and Jim came running from the fire station.

"You´re okay?" Jim asked, with a really worried look on his face.

"I´m fine," I said, and tried to hide my hands behind my back.

"Show your hands Minnie," he said. I sighed, and realized I had not really an option so I held them out.

"I´m going now," Mr. Anderson said. "Please, Minnie, try not to get killed until Monday." He smiled, turned around and walked down the road.

"I should probably take you to the station with this." Jim said, when he had checked my hands and my knee, "We should get this cleaned, and see if it needs stitches… You can go home Mel, my shift will be over in a while, so I´ll bring her home later."

"Ehrm, Jim," Melinda began. "It seems like, Minnie has a wound on her back, I haven´t seen it… she wanted you to take a look at it first."

"I´ll take a look at that too." Jim took my arm, and lead me down the road, while I try to figure out how I was gonna explain the wound on my back to Jim… because I didn´t really wanted to tell him the truth.

**So, I´m stopping right there. Hope you had a great Christmas and new year, I know I had. **

**And, one thing more, a pretty funny story. I live in the north Sweden, you know that right? Well, in the north of Sweden/Finland, we´ve got this group of people called "samer", whom hold reindeers, simple explained. And when we´re in our cabin, our neigbours there are samer. And, I was there this afternoon, and we (me, mum, dad, and my brother) were sitting by the fire outside, grilling and eating. And then... all of a sudden, there is a reindeer standing by th fire... seriously thought I woudl die of laughter, and my dad, who´s got a really, really weird sence of humor, he stood up and like, "come here barbeque... come here suovas cebabs." (suovas-cebabs is like usual cebabs, though you use reindeermeat instead of... whichever kind of meat they use for cebabs.) Laughed so much.  
**


	15. Love

**So, if you haven´t read the Ghost- whisperer- one- shot I wrote some time ago, "fix you" could you please go read it and review. **

"Who was that man… Mr. Anderson?" Jim asked when I´d sat down on a bench in the fire- station.

"My teacher," I mumbled. Jim nodded slightly, and kept on cleaning the wounds on my knee and palms, in silence, before a big- grown, grey- haired man came into the room. Jim turned his head a little to look at him.

"Oh, hey Flaher." He said, and I nodded first and looked down to the floor.

"So, I guess this is young Minnie," Flaher, which I guess was his name, said, and jumped up on the bench next to me. "I´m Tim Flaherty and you can call me, Tim, or Flaher, or uncle Tim…" I smiled a little.

"So," Jim stood up and threw some paper- balls he had been using to clean the wound on my knee in the bin. "Let´s take a look at that wound on your ba…"

"No," I jumped down from the bench and ran past Jim before Jim or Tim had the time to catch me, and then through the door, which led out to the bigger room in the fire station. I could hear Jim coming after me, I jumped over a table and turned around towards Jim, I started shouting without caring about that everyone in the room would hear me.

"I´m not letting you see it… you´ll hate me…"

"Why would we hate you?" Jim seemed to be trying talking in a calm tone to me, to calm me down.

"Why wouldn´t you? Everyone else does anyway,"

"That´s not true."

"It is."

"Minnie, " Jim sat down at a table. "Why won´t you just understand that we love you."

"What?" I almost whispered.

"We love you."

"On my birthday…. Bad stuff happens to people that loves me…. To people I love…. You better not…. Why can´t everything just stay as it was before…. When everything was it had always been…" I was crying now. "And I had nothing left to lose." I fell down on my knees crying. Jim stood up and walked over to me, he lifted me up and carried me into the smaller room again, it had gone all quiet, though there sat about ten to fifteen firemen and paramedics in the bigger room. When we got into the smaller room, Jim closed the door behind us, after have been placing me on the same bench as before, he jumped up to and then embraced me again, and held me like that until I had stopped crying.

"I´m sorry," I mumbled when I´d stopped.

"No, no, don´t say you´re sorry, Jim stood up and got me a tissue. I didn´t use it, I just kept on fingering with it. Jim took it from me, and dried my eyes before throwing it in the bin.

"So," Jim began, and clapped my shoulder. "Can I take a look at that wound now?" I nodded slightly, and jumped down to the floor, then I turned my back against him and pulled my hoddie and T- shirt off.


	16. Minnie s first ghost

I thought I would hear Jim gasp, or say something when I´d pulled my T-shirt of, but he didn´t make a sound. I jumped up on the bench again, and turned around, so I had my back against him.

"So," he said. "When did this happen?"

"Three days before I moved in with you and Melinda," I mumbled.

"Why didn´t you show me it earlier?"

"I… I don´t… I guess…. I just."

"Were you afraid that we would think… that you´re useless?"

"I guess." I almost whispered. Jim clapped my shoulder slightly.

"Don´t worry, you never was, you never will be useless. And no one has the right to say you are, who did this to you?" I didn´t answer that question. And Jim didn´t ask again, it hurt a lot when he pressed the pus out of the wound, and cleaned it, but I kept still. And refused to show him it hurt.

After Jim had cleaned the wound, and I had pulled on my hoodie again, I followed him out to the car, and sat down in it to go home.

"I´m doing grilled- cheese- sandwiches for dinner today," Jim said after a while. "Do you like that?" I shrugged. He looked at me, as if he wanted to ask something, but he kept quiet, and I was grateful for that.

When we got home, I went to sit down in the sofa in the living room. I lifted up my feet in the sofa, when Melinda walked into the room.

"Hey," she said. "No shoes in the sofa." I pulled of my shoes, and put them on the floor. Then I turned my head, so she couldn´t see my face. But she had already walked out of the room. I sighed, presses my arms against my shoulder, and laid down half.

"Minnie," Jim came into the living room, a while later.

"Yeah,"

"I and Melinda are going out to the back- yard, to drink coffee, why don´t you come to? You can have a drink?" I looked up at him, and nodded, I walked into the kitchen, and grabbed a coke, before walking out in the back- yard, where I sat down on the ground, and opened the can. After a few minutes, I got an idea, I placed the can on the table behind me, and walked out to the garden. I looked up at Jim and Melinda, then I ran, took a jump, and… well, I was meaning to turn a cartwheel but…

"No, DON´T" Melinda shouted all of sudden, I had just taken the jump and tried to turn, Melinda´s shout distracted me, and I fell to the ground.

"You´re okay?" Jim came running across the yard.

"I´m fine!" I jumped up on my feet, and ran over to Melinda.

"WHAT were you thinking?" I pushed her to the ground.

"WHOA," Jim held me back. "What´s that for?"

"You´re not supposed to distract people that doing gymnastics," I fizzled. "It´s dangerous, I would have done it fine, if you hadn´t shouted. Let go off me." I pulled my arms away from Jim´s hands, and ran inside, and up to my room. Where I threw myself at the bed.

**Melinda pov**

"You´re okay?"

"Fine." Jim helped me to stand up again. But I didn´t look at him. A ghost had turned up, when Minnie tried to do that cartwheel, a girl, covered in bruises, and with blood on her shirt and face.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Lizzie," she answered.

"Why are you trying to hurt Minnie?"

"I wasn´t trying to hurt her, you´re the one who messed it up."

"I thought…"

"I know what you thought, but you were wrong. And you… you must not listen to what Minnie said, when she says bad stuff, she doesn´t mean it, it´s the only thing she´s ever known." Lizzie disappeared again.

"Who was it this time?" Jim asked.

"I don´t know, but she told me that…" I told Jim what Lizzie had told me.

"Maybe it´s time to ask Minnie about what you can do, maybe she can tell you who this Lizzie is." Jim suggested, I nodded, and together we walked into the house, and upstairs, and knocked the door to Minnie´s room.

**So, that´s it for today… bye **


	17. The appendix

**Jim pov. **

I walked after Melinda upstairs and stood behind her, when she knocked the door to Minnie´s room.

"Can we come in?" Melinda shouted.

"It´s your house," came as usual from inside the room, Melinda opened the door. It was dark inside the room, so Melinda turned the lights on. Minnie sat on the bed, with her back against the wall, and her legs crossed, she didn´t look at us.

"I´m sorry," she mumbled. "I just… I was so afraid when I fell, I thought I would get hurt."

"It´s all right," Melinda sat down on Minnie´s bed, and reached for her hand, but she pulled it away, and held it tightly to her chest.

"You´re not hurt are you?" I asked. She looked up at me, then looked down again, and shook her head.

"Minnie, there´s something I´d like to tell you." Melinda began, I sat down next to her. Minnie nodded slightly.

"This is gonna sound weird, but… I see spirits, earthbound spirits. Dead people who have not crossed over, they come to me for help, when they have unfinished business with the living. There was a ghost out in the garden, when you tried to turn a cart- wheel earlier, that was why I shouted, it looked like she was gonna hurt you."

"It´s okay," Minnie said. She stood up, and looked out the window, where she had our back towards us.

"What did she look like?" she mumbled. "Don´t tell me the ghost´s name, just tell me what she looks like."

"Well, she has long blonde hair, about ten years old, skinny, blue eyes… she has loads of bruises and cuts, so she´s probably been killed by being hurt by something." Minnie turned around towards us, tears streaming down her face.

"No wonder she came when I tried to turn a cartwheel," Minnie almost whispered. "She´s the one who taught me that," She sat down on the floor, with her back against the wall. "Lizzie!" Melinda nodded when Minnie said the name.

"She was my best friend." Minnie whispered. "Is she here now?"

**Minnie´s pov**

"No," Melinda answered. "She´s not here now, but you could bring her here, and the fastest way to do that, is to tell a story about you two." I nodded.

"Well, at the school I went to when she lived," I began. "There were me and Lizzie, and another girl, that we called Yippie, the others used to make fun of us, scream "here comes Lizzie, Yippie and Minnie," or. "Here comes I-I-E" but their favorite were always. "Here comes the rich kid, the one who´s gonna be rich, and the one who´s got no future…. Guess who that last was?"

"Why those?"

"Lizzie´s parents owns some company, they´re pretty rich, Yippie was the best in school, and wanted to be something so she could get rich. My dad wasted all of our money on alcohol, and food from McDonalds. And I´ve never had an A, not even a B in any class." Jim and Melinda nodded. I laid my arms around my knees, trying hard not to cry.

"She´s here." Melinda said.

"Where,"

"She´s sitting on the bed, between me and Jim, I looked at the spot, that seemed empty to me." Then I stood up.

"Can you tell Lizzie…"

"She can hear you" I nodded, and started talking.

"Lizzie…" I began. "But my voice broke. I took a deep breath and… "I don´t know what to say… I love you… I love you so much."

"She loves you too," Melinda said. "And she says that, it´s all right to cry."

**Melinda pov**

"Ask her why she switched schools when I died." Lizzie said, I asked Minnie.

"Too many memories," Minnie said. "And, with both you and Yippie gone, the bullying…" she didn´t finish her sentence. I nodded.

"Tell her I remember when they used to call us the smart open, the sporty one, and the appendix."

"Lizzie says that she remember they used to call you three the smart one…."

"… the sport one and the appendix… yeah, appendix, something that´s there for no reason at all." Minnie shook her head a little.

"Don´t worry Minnie," Lizzie now stood next to Minnie. "You were always the brave one, never the appendix." Lizzie laid her hand on Minnie´s head.

"She says that you were always the brave one, never the appendix."

"I don´t feel very brave…"

"But she is."

"She says you are. So," I turned to many. "Do you see a light?" Lizzie shook her head.

"I still have something left, and I gotta warn you, and keep Minnie safe."

"But you won´t have to keep her safe now," I said. "Me and Jim will make sure nothing happens to Minnie now."

"But he´ll come back for her!" Lizzie´s smile were long gone. "He´ll come back for her,"

"Who will,"

"Brian McNitter, he´ll come back, and there´s nothing you can do to stop it." Lizzie disappeared again, I turned to Minnie.

"Do you know someone named Brian McNitter?" I asked her. Her usual green eyes seemed to change colour to black.

"It´s my dad… Brian McNitter is my father."

**So, do you wanna know something great, today, it´s exactly one year since I quit my meds. HURRAY HURRA HURRAY HURRAY **


	18. Birthday

**Minnie pov. **

I laid in my bed, on the side, with my back against the door, and staring in the wall, though I didn´t really see the wall. I wasn´t thinking about anything much, though there were thoughts spinning in my head. I don´t know for how long I laid there, just staring into the wall, in the dark.

**Jim pov**

"Okay Sid, thanks… yeah, bye." I hung up the phone. I sighed, and laid the phone back on the bench.

"So? What did he say?" Melinda asked.

"The ghost was right, "I said. "According to Sid, it seems like Brian is on some sort of rehab for problems with alcohol. But yes, when he gets out of there, October the 15:th, he´s the one choosing where Minnie should live."

"It´s not fair!"

"I know… I´ll go tell Minnie about it."

"I´m coming too" Melinda stood up and followed me upstairs.

**Minnie pov**

The door to my room opened, and Jim and Melinda came in. I sat up, and put my back against the wall,

"I talked to Sid," Jim said. I nodded slightly. "And… well, Lizzie was right. Your father is in some sort of rehab right now, and when he gets out of there…"

"…. It´s his choice who I am gonna live with… yeah… I´d already kind of guessed that. And he´s gonna want me to live with him…. Believe me."

"But if he´s in rehab now, maybe he has changed."

"My father doesn´t change…. He never does."

"Then, well, Sid told us you came here when someone called the police about your living situation, weren´t you the one doing that?"

"No… I didn´t… and no…. I don´t know who called the police about my dad."

"But, you know Minnie," Melinda grabbed my hand. "Before he comes back, it´s gonna be your birthday, and we´re gonna make it great aren´t we?" I pulled my hand away from hers.

"I told you, it´s not a big deal… could you please just… just leave me alone." They nodded and stood up, when they walked out of the door, I laid down again, and kept on staring in front me, I did not wanna go back to live with my dad… did not wanna…. Really didn´t want to go back to him. But I knew, that I had no choice.

And the days went on, soon we had gotten to Saturday, October the first, in 2007. I was asleep in the morning, when II woke up when I heard singing.

"Happy birthday to you," Jim, Melinda, Delia and Ned came into my room, singing out loud, really false. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Minnie, happy birthday to you." They ended it with screaming "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINNIE" I smiled, and sat up in my bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Thank you guys," I said. "Very nice singing."

"Happy birthday Min´" Ned said. I looked up.

"Min?"

"Is it okay, calling you that I mean?"

"It´s better than Minnie," I mumbled, and stood up. "But you realize you´re making a nick name out of a nick name right?"

"I do? Then what´s your full name?"

"I…. I don´t know."

"WHAT?"

"No one ever told me, but Min´s fine."

" Well stop the talking" Jim said, "go on and get yourself dressed, we´ve got cake and gifts downstairs." I smiled, pick out a pair of jeans and a pink hoodie from my wardrobe and half ran to the bathroom to get changed.

When I came downstairs, I was still half running, and into the living room where the others were sitting. With cake on the table, and presents. I smiled and sat down in the sofa. Jim reached me a small, square parcel, and slowly, I started to unwrap it. Then I just sat there, staring at the object in my hand.

"Come on, earth to Min´" Jim said after a while. "It´s from me and Melinda by the way. Come on Minnie say something."

"You… you shouldn´t have," I started, but I didn´t know what to say, I couldn´t believe that what I held in my hand, was my very own cellphone.

"So, I´ll explain then. This phone, is prepaid. It´s my old one, and it´s got the numbers to me, Melinda, Ned, Delia and Rick Payne. And when… when you don´t live here anymore, or at any time, if you just call me or Melinda, and if you haven´t got the chance to call, just write 911 in a text message and send it to one of us, then we´ll be right there to pick you up, or help you." I nodded.

"Thank you." For a split second, I started counting the days until I´d have to move in with dad again, but I shook the bad thoughts of me. I didn´t wanna think about that, not now, not today. But one thought lead to another, and suddenly I remembered, that this wasn´t just my birthday, it was also the day that something bad would happen… probably to someone in this room, every time I loved someone, something bad happened to them, or they just left, on my birthday.

"Hello-o" I woke up from my thoughts by Ned´s voice. "Earth to Min"

"Sorry" I mumbled. "I was just thinking."

"You seemed so sad," Jim said. "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing!" I looked down to the floor.

"Are you sure?" Delia asked. "You really look sad."

"It´s just that…" I began. "It´s just that... that when I start to love someone, like I love you guys, bad stuff happens to them on my birthday. My dad says that my mum left when I turned three, but I can´t remember that, or anything else about her. When I turned nine, then Yippie moved, to Europe, she didn´t want to, but she had to, and I haven´t met her since then. Then, when I turned ten… then, Lizzie… well, you know." The others nodded. Melinda smiled slightly.

"Minnie there´s no such thing as curses." She said. "you´ll see, today, we´re all gonna have a great time, come on, open the rest of the presents now." I nodded, then Delia reached me a gift.

"This one´s from me," she said. "I hope you like it." I unwrapped it slowly, and found a small box, I opened it and found a bracelet, made by purple pearls.

"Thanks Delia, it´s so pretty," I said, and pulled it over my hand.

"You know, those stones, it´s said that they bring luck, confidence and happiness to the one who wears it. I don´t really believe it, but why not give it a try." I smiled, and gave her a hug.

Except from this one, I got a book and a CD of Ned, a hoodie and a hairband from Jim and Melinda, and a cool pen- case from Professor Payne. When I had unwrapped all the presents, and we had eaten cake for breakfast, Jim had another surprise.

"You know, Minnie, that the Tivoli's in town now." He began. "Well, I need to go there, because there´s gonna be one station called soak a paramedic, and I figured out, why don´t we all go, while I´m working at my station, you guys can just hang around and have a great time."

"Cool," I and Ned said at once.

"That´d be so fun." I said.

" So… I guess we´re going when the Tivoli opens, about five P.M. So you and Ned could just hang around, for the rest of the day, and then we´ll eat an early dinner, and then we´re going. What do you want for dinner?"

"Grilled cheese- sandwiches." I said.

"Grilled- cheese- sandwiches it is then." Jim said. I smiled, and picked up my birthday presents, then I and Ned walked upstairs, and enjoyed ourselves, while the adults where downstairs talking.

In the afternoon, when Jim had begun cooking for dinner, and then suddenly.

"Can you feel the smell of something burning?" I asked Ned. He sniveled a bit, and nodded. We stood up, and walked out of the room, before running down the stairs. But in the bottom of the stairs, Ned suddenly stumbled and fell to the floor with a loud bang.

"NED." I shouted, and squatted down next to him, I shook his shoulder, but he remained still, and Jim, Melinda and Delia came running down in the hallway.

"Come on Ned, please wake up," I was almost crying now, when he opened his eyes, laughed and pointed at me.

"I´m fine," he said. "Haha, you thought it was the birthday- curse, didn´t you? Haha."

"You´re not funny." I punched his shoulder. "What was it that smelled like it was burning?" I turned around.

"Oh that was just Melinda burning some cheese," Jim helped Ned standing up. "And Minnie, for the last time, there´s no such thing as birthday- curses." I just muttered as what he said.

And finally the clock reached five, Jim was the driver, and I, Delia and Ned sat down in the back- seat. When we reached the Tivoli, Jim headed in one direction, and we others started to slowly walk around the Tivoli. Eating cotton- candy, trying to win prices, and going on the carousels. Ned won a huge stuffed animal, that looked like a colorful hippopotamus. Then we reached the station where Jim was supposed to get soaked, Ned tried it first, but he missed, then I tried.

"Come on now Minnie," Ned said. "Come on."

"You´ll never hit it Minnie" Jim said. "You´ll miss…. You´ll…" I threw the item I held in my hand, and hit the board, and the board under Jim disappeared, and he ended up in the tub. We others laughed, and Jim pressed himself over the edge, so he stood on solid ground, he shook his head, so the water came in every directions, including on me.

One of the last stations we reached, was a place where there were to climbing walls, identic. The man who stood next to them explained it.

"You´ll be attached to this!" He held up some security equipment. "And you´ll compete against the others, the first one up gets to stand up there for a while, but the last one up is the first to jump down." I and Ned nodded and looked at each other, then we nodded to each other, and let the two men, attach us to the security equipment, I let Melinda hold my bracelet, so it wouldn´t get stuck in something, and Delia held the colorful hippopotamus.

**Melinda´s pov**

I watched as Ned and Minnie ran towards the climbing walls, and started climbing up, then my chin dropped. Minnie had to be so strong, because she was really fast up, and a few times, she even let go of with both of her feet, and pulled herself upwards with her arms. Not very surprising she won the competition. Ned umped down, and came safely down on the ground, but when Minnie was supposed to jump, there suddenly was a ghost standing by the climbing wall. This time it was an adult woman, she turned her head, and looked at me. She had bruises on her face, her clothes were dirty and had got holes on them, then she turned her head again, and looked back at the climbing walls, where Minnie were just about to jump.

"MINNIE, NO" I shouted but too late, Minnie jumped, and the ghost made the security equipment fail, and a scream was heard, when Minnie fell, way too fast, four meters down, and landed on the ground, and didn´t move anymore, she just laid there.

**So, a cliffhanger.  
I´ve checked, October the first, 2007, when this has its part, is not a Saturday, but let´s not care about that. **


	19. Authors note

**So, when I started writing this, I hadn't watched the full series of GW, but this is the case now. **

**Ned´s thirteen years old, Minnie´s twelve **

**Delia knows about Melinda´s gift, but is skeptical about it. **

**Gabriel is not gonna enter in this story, although he may be mentioned, Tom Gordon is the same. **

**Professor Payne is in it, not Eli. **

**Ned is not in private school**

**Jim has not died (hate that story line, it´s so confusing) and is still a paramedic. **

**So, that´s the case now, if you got any questions, then just ask. **

**By the way, do you wanna know where Minnie´s name McNitter comes from? **

**It was like this, about 150 years ago, there lived a family in Scotland, their names was Margaret and William, and their sons, James, and another boy, where the name started with a J, but I can´t remember what name, so we could just call him J. James and J did some sort of crime, they robbed someone, or murdered someone or something, and when the police was after them, they ran. And suddenly, they just disappeared. The family´s name was McNitter, then suddenly, J and James disappeared, and a while later, two men named Nitter was discovered in Norway. The name Nitter have disappeared throughout the generations, but either J or James (Mc)Nitter, is my like, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, I´m not sure about how many greats there should be, but let´s just say I came from one of them… if that´s how you say it. **


	20. Waiting

**Oh, now I know that J McNitter´s first name was Joseph ****.**

**Ned pov.**

I had just gotten all the security equipment off myself, and was back next to mum and Melinda when Minnie was supposed to jump down from the climbing wall, but suddenly something went wrong, I heard Melinda shouting right behind me, and then Minnie fell, and she fell way too fast.

"Oh my gosh," I could hear mum behind me, and all three of us we ran over to Minnie. I reached for her, but Melinda shouted.

"No, don´t touch her, if her back´s hurt it may just make it worse. Ned, get Jim, quick." I did as I was told, turned around and ran as fast as I could through the crowds to get Jim.

"JIM, JIM." I came around the corner, where Jim stood and once more tried to dry his hair with a towel.

"Yeah Ned what is it?"

"Climbing equipment failed…. Minnie fell…. Doesn´t move." Was the only things I managed to say.

"Whoa easy Ned, slow down and tell me again." He answered.

"There´s no time to explain you need to come fast, now, Minnie´s hurt."

"Don´t just stand there, you need to come now. She fell down from the climbing wall."

"Okay, FLAHER, get the bag and come to the climbing walls." I ran towards the climbing walls with Jim right after. Loads of people had gathered around the place where Minnie laid, but I and Jim pushed our way through the crowds.

Later I watched as Flaherty and Jim stabilized Minnie´s back and neck.

"You can´t die Minnie," I whispered. More to myself than to her. "Please don´t die."

"It´s okay," mum embraced me. "She won´t die…. She won´t."

**Later in the hospital**

I, Mum and Melinda was in the waiting room at the hospital, Jim was with Minnie, he had said he would come back here when he knew more. Mum and Melinda sat down in the chairs, but I couldn´t relax.

Somehow, I had brought the colorful hippo in here. It laid on the chair next to my mum, as I walked back and forth in the room. With my hands in my pockets.

"She has to be okay," I mumbled to myself. "She just gotta."

"Ned, sit down," mum said. "Nothing will get better with you being so stressed out."

"I shouldn´t have competed against her," I mumbled.

"Ned, this isn´t your fault."

"I shouldn´t have let you two go on that thing either," mum said.

"You two stop that, this is none of yours fault," Melinda said. "A ghost did this…

"But why?... the ghost was her best friend."

"No… this is another one… I haven´t seen this one before… It´s a woma…" Melinda stopped in the middle of the word, when Jim came walking out the doors.

"Is she okay?" I asked, even though I knew it was a dumb question. Jim slightly nodded, and I could hear mum and Melinda stand up behind me.

"Her shoulder is badly dislocated. It seems like she was trying to catch the fall with putting her arm out, but nothing´s broken. She´ll just need a sling for about six weeks. She got a concussion, from that she went unconscious, but yeah, she´s going to be just fine."

"Can… can we see her?" I asked. Jim nodded again, and I took the hippo, and walked after him.


	21. Mr Anderson

**I´m sorry**

**Melinda pov**

Jim held up the door to Minnie´s room, Ned walked in first, with the huge Hippo under one of his arms, then me I still had my hand clenched hard around the bracelet Minnie had wanted me to hold while she was climbing. Then Delia, and last Jim that closed the door behind us. Minnie´s bed was the only one in the room, but someone stood next to it. It was the woman that caused the fall at the Tivoli. She leaned over Minnie´s bed.

"Why are you trying to hurt her?" The woman looked up when she realized I could see her, in the blink of an eye, she stood only a couple of centimeters from me, her blue eyes stared into mine, with a look, I could not decide what she was trying to say with.

"If that what it takes to make you listen." The woman said, with a hoarse, almost whispering voice.

"I´ll listen," I said. "I´ll listen, but don´t try to get to me with hurting the ones I love." In the blink of an eye she was by the door, she started talking again, with a still hoarse voice, but almost shouting.

"You want me to believe that, nobody listened to me while I was alive, neither will you now." A split second later she was gone.

"Who is it?" Jim asked.

"I have no idea, she just disappeared again, she´s claiming that nobody listened to her, and that nobody will." I said. Jim shook his head. I walked over to Minnie, took her hand, and pulled on the bracelet she had asked me to hold. I stroke her hand a little, then walked around the bed, and sat down next to Jim. Ned and Delia sat down on the opposite side of the bed from us, and then we waited… and waited… and waited. We made a few attempts to start talking about what happened, or other things. But it didn´t work, and at last we just sat there and waited… It started getting close to midnight when Jim spoke up again.

"Go home Delia," he said. "It´s gonna be yet a while before Minnie wakes up, go home, sleep and come back in the morning." Delia nodded, stood up, but Ned didn´t move.

"I wanna stay." He said.

"Come on honey," Delia said. "Jim will call if something happens." Jim nodded. Ned stood up, and then placed the colorful hippo he had won at the Tivoli next to Minnie in the bed.

"I was gonna give it to her anyway." Ned said, and then he turned around and walked out of the room, and then Jim turned to me.

"You can go home too, take a shower, get some sleep and then come back in the morning." I didn´t really want to go, but stood up anyway. Kissed Jim and then walked out to the car.

**Minnie pov**

I started moving and slowly opened my eyes. I was in a hospital room, I had one of my arms resting around a stuffed, colorful hippo…. Wait… hippo. Oh that was right, I had been at a Tivoli, and Ned had won the hippo, and then we climbed, but what happened later. I tried hard to remember.

Jim was sleeping leaning against the frame on my bed, I wasn´t sure if I wanted to wake him up, but at last I decided to do that. I started lifting my right hand, but it hurt too much, and then I noticed that my right arm was in a sling. I lifted my left hand instead, and tried to shake Jim´s shoulder.

"Jim." I croaked. "Jim."

"Mhm."

"Jim." I turned my hand, and hit Jim on the head with the back of my hand.

"Yeah, yeah… hey." Jim reached out his hand and stroke away my hair- bangs that were hanging over my eyes.

"How you´re feeling?" Jim started checking my pulse, I felt.

"My shoulder hurts," I almost whispered. "My head too. But it´s not too bad… what happened?"

"You jumped down from the climbing wall, the security equipment failed, you fell. Your shoulder took the worst hit, it was dislocated, you´ve got a minor concussion. You are not going to school for this week. But, you´re gonna be just fine."

"Yeah, I know."

"I´ll have to call Melinda, and Delia and Ned." Jim pulled out his cellphone of his pocket. And sat down in his chair again, while a doctor came into the room, and checked the same things that Jim recently had.

**The next day, Monday afternoon.**

"Hey Ned." I said when Ned came over after school on Monday afternoon.

"So you´re home?"

"Yeah, I´ve been home for a couple of hours."

"Hey, you´ve heard Mr. Anderson´s leaving?"

"What?"

"After the mid- term holidays."

**Tuesday**

"But I need to talk to Mr. Anderson."

"You can talk to him next week."

"I need to talk to him now. Please Jim."

"Okay, one condition."

"What?"

"I`ll drive you there, I´ll wait for you and I´ll drive you home, no more than fifteen minutes."

"Okay."

"MR. ANDERSON?" I walked through the halls at school. "MR. ANDERSON"

"Yes Minnie. Hey, how you´re doing, I heard about the accident."

"I´m okay, Ned told me you´re leaving."

"Yeah, yeah I´ve been offered a new job, I need to take it."

"Is there any other reasons?"

"No, what would that be."

"I don´t know, but I can see there´s something you´re not telling me."

"No…. no, it´s nothing."

"Okay." I turned around and walked out of the school building.

**Afternoon, same day, Mr. Anderson pov.**

"You okay Joe?" I heard one of my colleges ask, I nodded.

"Yeah, yeah I´m fine."

"Really, you´re looking really stressed out."

"Rough day, I´m leaving now." I said, and turned around, I walked fast out of the school building.

it was dark outside, and raining as if the skies were falling down. I got in my car, and started driving towards the highway. I drove faster, faster, faster until I couldn´t take it anymore, I stopped by the road- side, and did something I hadn´t done in many years, I cried like a baby. Cried as if my heart was broken, and to me it seemed like there was no end of it.

"I… I´m so sorry Maria." I sobbed, after crying for a while. "I´m so sorry, I couldn´t watch out for our daughter better." I almost whispered, to myself, after I had brought myself together. I dried the tears from my cheeks and eyes with my sleeves. Sniveled, and was just about to start driving when someone knocked the window, and I opened it.

"Everything okay Mr?" the police asked, I nodded.

"Yeah, everything´s fine." The police man nodded and walked away from my car, I started driving home, slowly.

**So, I know this chapter is a bit fast forward, but you´ll have to deal with that.**

**Today it´s the one year anniversary since I joined fanfiction**

**Please review**


	22. Going back

**Dear guest, thank you for your review, and don´t worry, I´m not finishing yet until it´s finished. Though it will probably come to an end pretty soon.  
Linnéa  
The names that Mr. Anderson mentioned in the last chap have been changed, Mikayla to Mariah.  
If there´s any twilighter there, my Twilight- fanfiction will become a Sims- 3- series on Facebook, you´ve got the link on my profile, please check it out. **

October the 15:th, the day I was moving back to my so called dad, came way to fast. I hadn´t looked forward to this, at all. I heard the car drive up on the driveway in front of Melinda and Jim´s house. My throat felt swollen, and I was trying hard not to cry, how could the world be so cruel, it decided to send me back to the man, who I now could hear he came walking towards the house.

I sat on the bench under the stairs, Melinda sat next to me, Jim stood behind me, in the stairs, and leaned over the railing. He walked down the stairs when there was a knock on the door, and opened the door. I couldn´t help to feel more scared when he opened it, I recognized the man who stood there. I looked to his feet, and slowly raised my chin so I looked from his feet, to his face.

"Are you coming?" He asked. I nodded.

"Wait outside, I´ll be there in a minute!" I mumbled, he nodded and Jim closed the door, just as we heard dad walk towards the car I broke down.

"Please…. Please…" I started hyperventilating. "Please… please… don´t send me back to him… please, please." I kept on begging.

"Minnie, breathe." Jim embraced me, but I just kept on begging.

"Please, please don´t send me back, please don´t send me back to him please." I continued. But I knew it wasn´t leading anywhere so I tried to stop, while Jim held me, and Melinda stroke my hair.

"Hey," Jim could finally let go of me. "We´ll try to figure something out okay? But right now, there´s nothing we can do. If you want anything, just give me a call okay?" I nodded, took my rucksack and my trunk and walked outside. I threw the bags on the back of dad´s old pick- up, and climbed into the seat next to dad.

I thought back to a couple of days before I´d moved in with Jim and Melinda, we had gotten an assignment by Mr. Anderson to write an essay about families, I couldn´t find anything to write about, so on the last day I had written, "I live with my dad." On a piece of paper, and handed it in. Today was Saturday, I´d have to ask Mr. Anderson on Monday.

"What happened to your arm?" dad asked after we had been driving in silence for a while.

"Nothing!" I mumbled, and stepped out of the car, when we were home. Dad walked over to me. He grabbed my collar and lifted me up.

"Tell me!" He fizzled.

"We went to the Tivoli on my birthday, I and Ned competed in the climbing walls, and when I jumped down from my side, the security equipment failed, so I fell, and my shoulder got dislocated."

"Take that damn sling off!" My dad said. I wasn´t stupid enough to fight back, even though I knew I needed it, I took it off and put it in my bag. I walked into the living room, and opened the door to the basement. The small, dusty and cold basement worked as my room here. I walked down, and sat down on the mattress on the floor. I wrapped my arms around my legs, and before I knew it, the tears where streaming down my cheeks way faster than I could stop them.

**Melinda pov. **

When Minnie had left, I started crying. Jim held me for a while, Ned, Delia and professor Payne came over. They knew what day it was. Jim couldn´t keep still when we sat in the living room. He stood up and walked back and forth in the room.

"I have to do something." He muttered over and over again. "There´s gotta be something."

I had never seen Jim like this. Even at the plane crash those years ago, he had been so calm, always someone for everyone to rely on. But now he seemed more stressed out than I had ever seen him before.

The others didn´t leave until it was almost midnight, we had brainstormed on every idea we got on how to make Mr. McNitter to end up where he belonged, in prison, and for Minnie to come back here, or at least not his house. But none of the ideas could work, so in the end we just sat there, in silence.

Around half past two in the morning, I woke up again. The ghost from the Tivoli stood by the foot of our bed, but she was blurry, and her face looked angrier and more upset than ever, all the bruises, also seemed to look worse than ever.

"Jim… Jim." I shook Jim´s shoulder, when I felt the feelings from the ghost.

"Mhm." Jim groaned and sat up a little.

"Jim… I think I´m gonna be sick." I whimpered. Jim immediately jumped out of his bed.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER." The ghost shouted. "NOW SHE´S GONNA GET HURT."

"Who is she… Minnie?"

"HER NAME IS NOT MINNIE."

"Who is it then?" Jim came running with a bucket, and a paper- roll, he held the bucket under my chin, the paper- roll on the bedside table, and laid his right arm around my shoulders.

"THE SAME PERSON."

"The same person… what do you mean… as Minnie?" Jim was the next one to speak up.

"You say you want us to listen, so I think it´s time for you to listen now." He said to the ghost. "I want you, to leave my wife alone, and I want you to leave Minnie alone… UNDERSTAND?" The woman screamed, and then disappeared, the next second, I was leaning over the bucket, erasing everything I had eaten yesterday.

"Whoa… It´s all right Mel." Jim stroke my back, trying to make me relax. "It´s okay… It´s all right." After what felt like hours to me, I had finished dry heaving

**Jim pov**

I hated seeing Melinda in pain. I hated this ghost for hurting my wife. When Melinda had finished heaving, I placed the bucket on the floor and reached for the paper roll. I took a piece and wiped off Melinda´s face. Her bangs laid flat towards her forehead of sweat, and there were tears, slowly streaming down her cheeks.

"Don´t cry." I placed the paper- roll on the bedside table, and then embraced Melinda. Slowly, I rocked her back and forth. Melinda leaned heavily towards my chest. I kissed the top of her head. We sat like that for a while, before I stood up.

"I´ll go get you some water, you… maybe you should change." Melinda nodded and stepped out of the bed, I took the bucket, the paper, and left the room. When I came back, Melinda had shifted her pajamas, to one of my T- shirts and shorts. I gave her the glass of water I had gotten for her, and afterwards, she placed the glass on her bedside table, I laid down next to her, and wrapped my arms around Melinda, who fell asleep with her head on my chest. But I couldn´t fall asleep, I laid awake.

This ghost, whoever it was, wouldn´t stay away, she´d come back, and Melinda would help it. That was always what happened. I couldn´t stop thinking about who this ghost was, and what did it want us? Why did it make Melinda feel so sick? And what had she got to do with Minnie?

**I´m stopping there. Please review. **


	23. Families

**Hi… I collect on pictures of actors that look like my characters, you can find them on my profile, and there is a pic of "Mr. Anderson." Take a look and tell me what you think, was that how you imagined him?  
And… earlier in this, it´s said that Minnie´s got green eyes… wrong, wrong, wrong, she´s got brown… to suit a certain storyline better**

"MR. ANDERSON." I ran through the corridors at school on Monday. Mr. Anderson turned around when I shouted.

"I´ve been looking for you all day… you know that essay we were supposed to write a while ago?"

"Yes, the one about families, yours were the shortest… I live with my dad, but he´s not family."

"No… I just wrote I live with my dad… Not that last part." Mr. Anderson got his bag, and got out some papers.

"Hmm, I´m pretty sure you wrote what I said." He riffled through the papers, and got out one, who turned out to be mine, about in the middle of the papers there was the text "I live with my dad, but he´s not family."

"I didn´t write that, it´s not even my handwriting." I said, and handed it back.

"Hmm, you´re right about that…. I´m sure there´s an explanation for this."

"Well, anyways, is it all right… if I like… I try again… please." Mr. Anderson bit his lip.

"Okay." He said at least… "But you´ve got three days, no more no less all right?"

"Challenge accepted." Mr. Anderson chuckled. I walked towards my locker to get my coat and my bag. I put a notebook and my pencil case in the bag, to use it later today, and then I walked to my so called home.

When I got to my room, I sat down on the bed, I got up the notebook and a pencil from my rucksack, I leaned my back against the wall, and placed the notebook in my knee. I knew what I wanted to write, but I couldn´t figure out how I wanted to start it. After a while, I heard laughing and shouts from the garden, I knew dad had some friends over, I knew that they didn´t like me disturbing them, but something told me, that I should check what they were doing. I walked upstairs, and to the garden. Where I came just in time to see dad throwing the last of the clothes Melinda had bought for me on the fire. My mind completely blacked out as I ran over to them.

"NO DAD, NO, NO, Please," I tried to run to the fire… ha, as if I had the time to save anything, and just in time, to see that colorful hippo go up in flames.

"NOOOOO." My scream echoed between the houses on the street. "NO, NO, NO." my dad had grabbed me around my waist and held me from the fire, ha, as if he´d care if I go up in flames too, dad threw me backwards, I ended up on the ground.

"Go get us some beers."

"Of course dad." I stood up, and walked into the house to get beers for dad and his friends… dad?. Was he really my family… oh yeah, I know what to write about in that essay now.

The next day already, I ran through the halls at school again, to find Mr. Anderson. At last I found him, and I handed him the essay, he nodded and took it. I walked away from the school and towards the antique store. When I came in there, Delia stood behind the counter, fixing with some stuff, but looked up when I came through the door, and greeted me with a smile.

"Hey Minnie, how you´re doing?" I shrugged, and laid a big box on the counter.

"Would it be all right if I keep these stuff here?" I asked.

"Sure… but… what is it?"

"Just some stuff." I said. "Please keep it here." What was in the box was my skates, the notebook and the envelope Valerie and Joseph had brought, and the birthday presents in form of the bracelet, the CD and the book. Delia nodded.

"Melinda will probably here in a minute, if you want to see her."

"No thanks… I… I need to go home." I lifted my hand to scratch my head, Delia looked a bit distressed before she asked.

"Shouldn´t you be wearing your sling?"

"I… I…" I stuttered. "I gotta go… bye." I ran out the door and out to the square, and then I continued towards my street. Knowing that I had been quite rude to Delia, but it didn´t matter, she couldn´t know, no one could know.

**The next day, in the ending of English lesson, last lesson for the day**

"Minnie, could you stay here for a second." I nodded to Mr. Anderson, and stayed while the others walked out of the room. Mr. Anderson pulled out a paper I recognized as my essay. He took it, and placed it on my desk, while he sat down on the chair on the other side of my desk. I looked at the paper, when I saw the letter he had wrote in a corner, as the grade, I couldn´t believe it.

"Really?" I asked, chocked. "I mean really, really?" Mr. Anderson nodded.

"Minnie… I swear, that the minute I think of anything I can do to get you out of this, I´ll do it."

"You´re not the only one…. Don´t bother, it´s never gonna work anyway. Can I keep this?" I held up the paper. Mr. Anderson nodded. I took the paper, said bye to him before he started asking more questions, and as soon as I came out from the school, I started running.

**Mr. Anderson pov**

I waited for a couple of minutes after Minnie had left the room, then I put all he papers and books I had and put them in my bag, then I stood up and hurried out of the room.

"Mr. Anderson?" the student Douglas Morison stopped me in the corridor. "Could I ask you something about that essay?"

"Can it wait until the morning?"

"I´d rather not. Are you okay? You look all sweaty and stressed out!"

"I´m fine, listen Doug, I really gotta go now, I´ll catch up the first thing I do tomorrow okay?" Without waiting for an answer, I turned around and hurried out of the school. I threw my bag in the backseat of my car before I got in the driver´s seat and sliding out of the parking lot. I drove as fast as I could, out on a forest road, and stopped. There I stopped, and for the second time in a few weeks I started crying like a baby.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Then I got out of the car and looked up into the sky.  
"IS THIS MY PUNISHMENT FOR THE FACT THAT I HAD SEX WITH A MARRIED WOMAN?" I fell to my knees, hit the ground, I just couldn´t stop sobbing.

**Jim pov**

I and Flaher was just about to leave for the fire station when Minnie came running over the square, she had a paper in her hand. While still holding onto it, she came into Melinda´s store, and shouted.

"Melinda, Delia, Ned, Jim, Flaher. I did it, I really got an A."

"Way to go." Minnie, Flaher high- fived her. I lifted her up.

"That´s my girl. I knew you could." I let her stand on her own two feet on the floor.

"Can I see it?" I asked. Minnie hesitated for a few seconds, but then nodded and reached the paper to me, when she reached out her arm, her sleeve rolled up a bit, and uncovered dark- blue bruises on her wrist.

"Minnie what have you done?" I threw the essay on the counter, and took Minnie´s hand. When I rolled up the sleeve more, it uncovered more big, dark- blue and purple bruises. She pulled it away from me.

"I…. I fell… I gotta go, my dad will get mad if I´m late." Minnie turned around and ran.

"Wait Minnie, you forgot your… " I began, but there wasn´t any point with continuing, she was already out the door and running over the square. I took the paper, and started reading. It was strong words, and it must have been visible on my face, because Melinda spoke up.

"Jim… Jim what is it?" I took a deep breath.

"It´s… this essay… strong words…"

"Read it out loud." Ned said. I nodded.

_Families_

_Who you count as your family, are often depending on which part of the world you come from. Like in Scandinavia, when people there are talking about their families, they´re talking about mum, dad, sisters and brothers. In China, families are mum, dad, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other relatives.  
But, if you ask me, family isn´t something you just are by sharing a piece of DNA, being a family is something you earn. Because family isn´t about sharing DNA, it´s about caring and loving each other no matter what.  
I´ve lived with my dad as long as I can remember, but he´s not family, the way he treats me is not the way family treats each other, all those blows, kicks and words he throws after me, are not things families throw after one and other.  
I thought the social services were there for giving families to children who haven´t got a family. But now I just don´t understand. They gave me a real family, a pair of folks who are like parents should be. They cared about me, they loved me, and during those weeks I lived with them, they were more of a family to me than my dad ever was.  
Then the social services changed their mind, they pulled me away from the only parents I´ve ever had, to send me back to my dad.  
I don´t even want to call him my dad, from now on, he´s father. Because anyone can be a father, you just need to be the male part that created a freaking baby, a living child, with its own feelings, its own body, and its own free will. But to be a dad, you need to accept, and respect that child, those feelings, that body and that free will. And my father doesn´t do that, the only body, feelings and free will are his own, and that´s not what a dad does. _

_Social services may wanna help me, with sending me to a pair of new folks, sending my dad to rehab, and then sending us both back when they thought he´d changed. But my father doesn´t change, and when they pulled me away from him, they pulled me away from the only life I´ve ever known.  
But social services exceeded their first action with sending me back to my father, but the worst they did, it was pulling me away from the only real family I´ve ever had. _

I threw the papers on the counter, jumped up on the counter, and put my head in my hands.

"There´s gotta be something we can do." I put my elbows on my knees, and sighed. "I mean, can´t we call Sid, and just use this as proof or something." The others shrugged, I pulled out my cellphone out of my pocket.

"Come on Flaher," I took the papers and dialed Sid´s number.

**That night, Melinda pov **

I woke up from hearing sobbing from the living room, I walked downstairs and found Lizzie´s ghost under the table in the living room.

"Something bad is gonna happen." She almost whispered.

"What Lizzie? What is gonna happen?"

"You need to stop it!"

"I´m sorry Lizzie, but we´ve already tried, and for now there´s nothing we can do."

"But you gotta stop him."

"I´m sorry… I wish I could. Can´t you do something? Are you a ghost or not?" Lizzie stopped crying, then looked up.

"…Something really bad." Then she disappeared, I just hoped she´d do something.

**Minnie pov **

My father had been digging in the garden all day, why I didn´t know, said he looked for something, now he came in, with a black bag in his hands.

"Say hi to your mum." He said, opened the black bag and turned it upside down so what was in it fell to the floor. And there was no way to mistake on what it was, it was bones… human bones. My stomach turned, and I had to fight hard not to throw up.

"Mum?" I looked up at my father. "But you said she left!"

"That´s right I did, do you really think I´d tell you what really happened. I fixed so your mum lost all of her friends, so no one would miss her, and then I killed her. And you know what… I am now gonna kill you… just like I killed her…"

*About here Lizzie disappears from Melinda*

I took a step back for every step he took towards me, but… if I was gonna die now anyway… I had nothing to lose.

"I HATE YOU, YOU´RE NOT MY DAD." I shouted at the top of my lungs. The next thing I knew, dad had taken stranglehold around my throat… He was really going to kill me.

**So, I was gonna continue and leave another cliffhanger, but I figured out this would be an even worse. **

**I actually sent that essay Minnie wrote to my English teacher, and asked her if it was good enough to have an A, she said yes. And also, speaking of teachers, what do you think is going on with Mr. Anderson? I know! **


	24. Burning

**Lizzie pov**

Mr. McNitter held a stranglehold around Minnie´s throat. I thought so much I could, what could I do? Then I spot the locker with glasses in front of Mr. McNitter. I opened it, and almost just by looking at it, I made a glass fly through the air. It hit Mr. McNitter right in the forehead, Minnie fell to her knees, coughing , still struggling to breathe. Mr. McNitter had fell to the floor as well, unconscious, he had a wound on his forehead, but it didn´t look too deep, so he would probably be awake any minute.

"GO MINNIE." I shouted in her ear. "CALL MELINDA, CALL JIM, CALL THE POLICE."

**Minnie pov**

I don´t know for how long I was on my knees, but when I looked up I saw that my father was unconscious. I thought for a second. Then it hit me, my phone, I gotta get my phone, I ran to my room, got the phone Jim and Melinda had given me for my birthday, and with shaky hands I pressed Jim´s number.

**Jim pov**

I was half asleep with my arms around Melinda, when the phone on my bedside table, "oh no," I thought. "Please, I don´t wanna work, not now." But I knew I had no choice, so I grabbed the phone.

"Mhm, Clancy." I mumbled.

"Jim?" I sat straight up in bed.

"Minnie?"

"Jim, please, please help. Call an ambulance, call the police. COME HERE. But let the police come here first. Please."

"Minnie what´s going on?"

"PLEASE."

"Min…"

"He´s waking up, gotta go."

"But Minnie…. MINNIE." The phone clicked when Minnie hung up. I jumped out of bed, and with one hand on the phone, and with the other I tried to dress myself I called 911. I explained to Melinda what I knew. And she got up too and started dressing.

**Minnie pov. **

My dad started turning, I had to hide somewhere, not the door, then he would just come after me. I ran upstairs to the attic, and climbed out the window, I reached for the downpipe.

"Come on." I groaned. "Come on." But for nothing, the pipe was too far away, and I had nothing else to do, then trying to hold on.

After a couple of minutes, I heard something, I heard the door open and close, I pressed myself against the wall when I heard father run out the house, soon I saw him, he ran down the driveway and down the road.

After another couple of minutes I could smell smoke, and heard the sound of something burning. The kitchen, father had set fire to the kitchen.

It was getting hard to hold on to the window seal, my shoulder hurt, as well as every muscle in my arms. But now, now I heard the sirens, just a little bit longer, just a couple of minutes more.

I kicked my feet into the wall, trying to ease the pain. It was getting harder and harder to hold on.

"Hang on there." I heard a shout from the driveway.

"I CAN´T" Pain- worse than ever- flashed through my shoulder, and I had to let go.

"Got ya´" I landed in someone´s arms, when somebody caught me. I didn´t recognize the man.

"Who are you?" I asked, out of everything I could have said, I asked who he was.

"Bobby Tooch."

"Is Jim here?"

"He´s on his way. Are you hurt?" I shook my head.

**Jim pov**

I hit the gas harder than ever, when we got closer, and after what felt like ages, I stopped in front of the house Minnie lived in. I and Melinda got out of the car, and looked around, a part of the house was burning, firemen stood and tried to get water on it to make it stop. There seemed to be firemen, paramedics and policemen everywhere. I looked around, more and more stressed out, where in all this was Minnie, was she hurt? Suddenly, a shout broke through the crowds.

"JIIIIIIM." I spotted her, and she came running towards me, I started running too, and it felt like ages before we reached each other, she jumped up into my arms, put her arms around my neck and her face against my shoulder. Melinda hugged her from her back.

"H-H-He wan-an-nted to k-k-kill me." Minnie sobbed. I stroke her back.

"Sch Minnie, it´s over now, I´m not letting him touch you."

**Minnie pov **

My father had run away from the house, and no one had found him yet when I, Melinda and Jim finally got in the car and Jim drove us towards home, that home, it was my home, and maybe, it had always been. I sat in the front, and when I a running man, I woke up from my half- sleeping state.

"There he is!" I almost shouted. "There he is." Jim stopped the car, and all three we got out.

"FATHER." I shouted, he stopped and turned around.

"Yep, it´s him." Jim took two big steps, and then hit my father in the face, the hardest he could. Dad fell to the ground, and Melinda got up her phone and called the police.

When we finally got home, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, as I felt Melinda and Jim together pulled off my clothes, dressed me in one of Jim´s T-shirts, and started putting me to bed.

"Jim!" I mumbled.

"Yes."

"I don´t wanna be alone!"

"Okay, come on here." I felt him lifting me up, and laid me down in the middle of his and Melinda´s big bed. They soon laid down on either side of me. And soon, I was sleeping tightly. And when I woke up, I felt like crap.

**Jim pov**

I woke up by Minnie , who laid in our bed, was shaking, and hack turns.

"Min´ are you okay?" I asked.

"I am so cold." Minnie gripped hard around the covers. Melinda came into the room, apparently she had been up already. I stood up, and leaned over the bed. I felt Minnie´s forehead.

"Gosh you´re burning up. Melinda, ehrm, get the ear- thermometer, and a wet cloth, I´ll call work and tell then I´m not coming in today." Minnie had suffered a lot of stress the last few weeks, now when she could relax, her body was protesting. Melinda came back with the cloth, she placed it on Minnie´s forehead, and I put the thermometer in Minnie´s ear, until it beeped.

"102.1." I found. "Could you call her school? I´ll stay at home with her today." Melinda nodded, and started dressing and preparing for going to work.

**Melinda pov**

I drove up to the square and towards my store. Delia was already there as I walked in. She started talking when I came in, but I held up my hands to silent her.

"Minnie´s living with us again."

"Why what happened?" I told Delia what I knew from the story. Which wasn't much.

"But… that´s a good thing. Now at least she´s safe and with you."

"I´m not so sure. The ghost from the Tivoli is still there. I saw her yesterday evening, at Mr. McNitter´s house. I just… I wanna know who she is and what she wants."

**Dun, dun, dun, duuun. **


End file.
